You’ve no doubt seen the coverage of Google’s office in London that features unique collaborative work spaces fitted with quirky furnishings and décor, not to mention the ‘secret’ roof gardens and allotment space enabling employees to plant herbs and vegetables.

But not every business can afford to invest in the services of top end designers in order to reflect their company culture in the workplace. So how important is the working environment of UK tech companies?

In order to see how working environments impact employee retention, we have spoken to a number of UK based tech startups who have shared their insights with us on how they have cultivated their own company culture in line with the needs of their employees.

First up we have advice from Brynne Herbert, CEO and founder of MOVE Guides. MOVE Guides has developed a single technology platform that brings together global mobility, finance, employees and vendors to enable end-to-end talent mobility management.

“As we say goodbye to the rigid 9-5 workday and email-free weekends, companies should look to leverage the benefits of a flexible work environment. Mobile devices and cloud technology have made it easy for employees to have a successful day at work without even stepping into the office. So, why do we need an employee to be in the office during a set time frame when we expect them to be on a conference call at 10pm?

“Work-life integration has become the new work-life balance. Personally, I believe that engaged employees are those who value their organisation and feel valued by their organisation and what better way to make them feel valued than by trusting them to make their own decisions about balancing their personal and professional life.”

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Next we have guidance from John Peebles, CEO of Administrate. Administrate is a developer of software that assists training companies and training departments to manage and deliver e-learning courses.

“Working environment to us means our company culture, physical environment, processes, tools, and team members. Each of these things is important. For culture, we’ve got a handbook of how we like to work which explains are company values, brand values, design values, and our values hierarchy, and provides an aspirational touchstone for how we engage with each other and the world.

“We strive to have a nice physical environment, but we actually don’t plough a lot of money into our office – pretty colours, coffee and beer are there, but we don’t care about nice surroundings too much. Instead, we put a lot of money into tools – the best Macs, monitors (biggest too), and mechanical keyboards to start, but also really great internal software tools that team members use every day.

“We spend a lot of time investing in our processes too – taking feedback, fine tuning, and making sure we’re building systems that work and promote efficiency and great results for our customers. Lastly, we try to make sure we’re always recruiting top notch team members (and growing existing team members) because smart people love working with other smart people.”

On the next page we hear from leaders at Flubit, Housekeep and LOVESPACE.

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